Hartpury took over the British Open, Intermediate and Novice Championships when Gatcombe Park pulled out of hosting them after 2023 was an expensive washout that was abandoned. It is great to still have them in the calendar and hats off to Hartpury who added a second packed day of cross country to its International weekend which was already hosting the 2*Long, 3*Long and 4*Short tracks and now hosts some 7 different cross country tracks across the venue.
Sadly the generous sponsorship of the Magic Millions was also lost along with Gatcombe but the brief for the Eric Winter designed courses was for the 4 Short to be aimed at autumn four star horses and the Open to be designed with 5 star events in mind. With a strong hand of current and aiming for 5 star horses in their team Tim and Jonelle both have 3 rides each in the Open and arrived at Harptury on Friday afternoon to ride the horses on site.
Friday turned out to be a lovely day with a mini heatwave forecast for the weekend. No one told the weather Gods of that plan though and Saturday dawned misty, cool and vaguely damp which was nice for the horses and boring for the humans.
An early start for the crew with Jonelle and Grappa Nera (Grape) heading down the centre line around 8am and putting in a credible test without three days practice riding for a 33. Grape is nothing if not keen to get on with the job in hand and she would have been delighted to be done and dusted with the dressage by 8.10am. Tim and Viscount Viktor were not far behind them with Viktor putting in a smart test for 28.7 and whilst Grape went grazing Jonelle warmed up Senor Crocodillo (Diego).
Due to the scheduling the Open dressage actually took place in the Indoor at Hartpury which is an odd space in itself. The horses get to warm up in the top indoor, then they get a final warm up in the collecting ring of the indoor which is pretty small, then they get to do their test in the main indoor which has seating on raised platforms above. The judges are seated within a metre of the arena and it’s not always the most horse friendly space although Jonelle commented that “weirdly enough, I thought that it worked well”. The scores seem to suggest the same so perhaps it is the class of the Open horses who are well used to different environments that have made this pan out so much better!
Diego was good as well to post a 30.7 and Chilli’s Morning Star (Ollie) sneaked ahead him for a 28 flat. The Open always draws some starry horses and the top of the leaderboard was as flashy as post Olympics can get with Tim and Coup de Coeur Dudevin (Joker) on 25 in 5th, Ollie Townend and Kentucky winner Cooley Rosalent 4th on 23, Emily King and Valmy Boats on 20.6, Tim and Vitali on 20.5 and Kitty King and Vendredi Biats on 20.4.
The showjumping started at 1pm in the main arena once the 4*S had finished. All six horses of Tim and Jonelle’s jumped super clears and the leaderboard didn’t really change that much as none of the top 16 faulted which just shows how much easier it is to jump a clear on Hartpury’s surface than on Gatcombe’s sloping and undulating main arena! Tim has three in the top 9 which is impressive and Jonelle has her 5 star ride Grape in 19th and with the less experienced Diego and Ollie in 12th and 7th.
Cross country tomorrow starts at 1pm and is streamed live on Horse and Country TV and whilst the camber and footing at Gatcombe were not always to everyones taste the cross country at Hartpury still retains the endurance test with the long climb up the hill to Hartpury House. Vitali has won the Open before and as the sun came out at Hartpury this afternoon the scene looks set for a great days sport tomorrow.